Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Let's start talking abt something... er.... do u guys ever struggle between music and studies? eg for me i wanted to borrow my sax home from sch, but every afternoon i have something on in sch and have to stay back. Either that or u juz have so much hw that u can't play and the same thing happens for weeks...
maybe it's juz me or the fact that we live in diff places with diff hw loads.=)

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

I never struggle between music and studies - I'm lazy all round lol... I'm reasonably smart, so I spent the last ten years fluking everything... might all backfire when i get my GCSE results next week though! music comes first though, when i have the choice - I'm a pianist, looking to start playing the sax in september, and I love hammering the hell out of my piano at all hours of the day and night... my neighbours dont like me too much, but wait until i get my sax >:) i might be banished to the shed until it stops sounding like a dying cat, i guess...

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

lol, I know - i discovered wind instruments are far harder than they look when i pilfered a friends bassoon... it only took me fifteen minutes to get the hang of a g maj scale but my god it sounded awful... and i had to breathe between each note lol

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

I may well end up doing music in Uni, even though i'm not studying it for the next two years (too much theory nonesense not enough playing!) because somehow i managed to fluke my way through my top piano exam... and evidently thats a fast track into music college, so alls well and good providing i keep playing :D

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

yeah, same. sometimes i miss out on so many classes just so i can go 2 the music area and practice, but i still seem to do well anyway!!
Scary!!!
i know what u mean tho, sometimes i find i have to choose between practice or homework, i usually pick the practice. it makes me so slack tho!
but anyway!!

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

yupp... I soooo agree...
Wish i could go to a sch like yours. Wat's gym like?
Do u have ropes like those on tv? haha... i sound so.. naive?
Ours is called P.E where they either make u play soccer, rugby, basketball, floorball or run 2.4km(and we r not allowed to choose).
still
Band ROX

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

about the gym thing
we have ropes, our gym teacher said over and over that we were going to try to climb them.
We never did, he was to occupied with his baseball team.
And with math, while my teacher taught, we talked, when she assigned homework at let us do it in class, we talked. SO. What do you think I got in, well, Geometry, for the year?

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

I don't want to go back to school, but I want to go back to BAND! Because I am eager to play my new saxophone. It is Yamaha YAS23 and it is awesome. I can't wait to try to get 1st Chair in band this year with my new sax.

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Most likely i will be playing bari for concert and jazz band, a very beat-up Yamaha YBS-61, but great sound, alto for marching, and my soprano anywhere i can find a place for it to be played. Any recommendations?

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

yas23player - Practice, practice, practice. If the rest of your sax section comes back to school sounding like they took the summer off, you've got it made. And by the way, I think the YAS23's are absolutely fantastic horns for the money. Make sure it is set up well and practice, practice, practice.....

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

my school is crazy, we have an accelerated program
I took ninth grade courses in eighth, tenth grade courses in ninth, and i will be taking eleventh grade courses in tenth.
Well the only immediate problem about band this year is that we have a lot of freshman, around thirty. Most of them can't handle even the marching band music, I was thinking, "Wait til they get to concert or jazz bands". We also have around only 15 seniors, who are very good individually. Juniors, around 25 of them, well, most of them need work, but the tenor sax player plays well. As for us sophomores, most of us haven't changed much since freshman year. Although, I did because of my relatively higher knowledge of music to them (I know how to transpose). SO my high school band is going to be fair this year, but last year was best.

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

wow, 30 freshman! thats heaps!! our high school bands are tiny! we have a senior one for the grade 9s and 10s and a juniour one for 7s and 8s, there are about 40 members all up in each one! yeah, its so strange, each year the bands keep getting worse and worse. i recon our school only has around 5 years to go before we dont even have a music or a band program at all!

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Haha.. Make sure ur band Instructor doesn't hear u say that. My high sch band is pretty small too. We have 43 members and abt 19 are secondary one (er... 13 yrs old) I think my band died once but now we're slowly learning to breathe again. We, seniors are complaining because we don't have the full support from the principal. Our P is super biased.
erm... abt geometry.... it was in our syllabus last yr.. i hated that part when we have to find the number of sides of the polygon when only the exterior angle of one side is given.
How many saxophone members do each of u all have?
Mine has 6. 4 altos, 1 tenor, 1 bari

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

First of all, middle school bands may typically have more. Why's that? The members aren't riddled down with alot of other crap that high school band geeks, of which I am proud to be, have.
Our school will have 8 alto's (from 11), 2 tenors (from 2), and me, 1 bari.

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Last year we had four seniors. I think we have, um, two this year. A percussionist and a horn player... Our band is the same way, shrinking and getting worse, and our band teacher told us all he's leaving as soon as he gets into grad school... Great morale, huh?
Oh yeah, I'm 15, but oh well.

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

I know exactly what you mean about your band dying!
Last year my high school stage band had approx 30 members, who were all fairly ordinary with a couple good guys here and there. Last year half of them left and we brought in some grade 8's that were really bad. at the end of this year another flow of grade 10's are going to leave and then the band will get worse and worse untill I leave, and then... It Will Die.

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Hehehe. i kinda feel the same way though, like, there are only about 3 saxophonists in the whole school and they really arent too good....like, after I leave there isnt realyl gonna be anyone there to play sax! i can officially say that at least that section is gonna die!

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

U can't let it die!! Our section almost died at least two years back. I was the only 'descendant' and my seniors were going to graduate after my first yr. But they made sure they passed down everything they could teach me. Now our section is full and we actually turned down quite a few request.
Now, i'm making sure my juniors knows everything i know before i grad nx yr. Yupp, urs can survive. Don't fight a losing battle.

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

well, sax kid, if you want a really difficult piece of music to play, try Contrasts by Jimmy Dorsey (its insane). Oh, and Jimmy, and Tommy Dorsey came from the area around where I live...oh, and my sax-playing friend says "KABOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
(entered by him)

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

You guys that go to big schools are so lucky. You must have some really good players. In my school, we only have about 300 kids total. So that makes our high school band size about 30 people. Yeah. Not large. We don't even have any french horns or bassoon or anything like that. We just have the basics and we get by. Our jazz band is tiny, but we do pretty well. We've got 4 trumpets, 5 saxes, 4 bones, 1 bass, 2 percussionists, 1 pianist. That's it. But we get to State every year, so it's ok. It's nice because you know everyone, but sucks because it really limits your abilities!

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Ok so this is an old post, but I am not that bothered (and btw im not 14, im nearly 16, but the 16yr old's forum is booooring)
I have named my sax Sam after my good friend. I have done so because it has several of his characteristics, i.e. It annoys me sometimes but is incredibly sexy. (am I allowed to say that on a forum for 14 yr olds?). It is true anyway.
If I hadn't thought of Sam it probably would have been Sandra, because I think that is a totally unsuitable name for a sax....but if u've called your sax sandra that's fine by me...
Have you named your sax?

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

yah that sucks to go to a small school in terms of band size. we had to cut 30 kids from our marching band becuase we only had 180 uniforms and too many people wanted to be in it. thats a great problem to have.
i always have problems with balancing music and school. my parents think i should maximize my grade potential and get like a 4.0 so i dont get to practice as much as i want to. i think about sax and music and piano day and night. it never leaves my mind.

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

currently we have 105 instrumentalists in our high school band, and 107 in our middle school band. The 105 includes most from our district, and some from another, because they have no high school. The middle-schoolers, however are just our district, so if all of them come up and keep playing, plus kids from the other district, minus graduations of our current 15 seniors, we'll have a monstrous band!

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

oh god, ANYTHING but the kids that never practice. that really reeeeally irritates me. everyone else can play and they can't, and they sit there and mope but they don't do anything about it!! and they bring the whole band down!!
argh!!!

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

my jazz ensemble (only band at my school) has about 20 folks 4 saxes (2 alto, bari, tenor) 3 bones, 3 drummers, 3 pianists, 2 guitars, 2 bass, and 4 or 5 trumpets (a lil more than 20 but w/e)
ehh i practice but i still occasionally make the screwup note and the tenor (seinor) gets frustrated but most of the time my band directors yelling at the pianist or trumpetist.

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

lucky...our school and band is tiny...and we cant march anymore because our whole marching drum section got burned in the fire we had the other year and we dont have the money to buy new stuff. Go figure...the smallest school in the area, biggest budget, and yet we have sever lack of programs...does that sound fishey to anyone else?

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

hey all u guys.. im 14 nd really want to start the tenor sax - i already play oboe (nd other stuff) so ill have no problem with the blowin or wateva but do you have any advice on wat type of sax to get? I don't want to get a rubbishy one but on the other hand not too expensive either! thanx....

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

firstly, this sound weird but where do you live - I mean the country btw, not where your house is! Fill out your community profile...
Coz if you're english i can recommend an AWESOME tenor sax for you to learn on, It's the one I learn on and I still have it now, it plays so beautiful *gets all misty eyed*
But if you live in america I cant really help as it's a british make and i dont really know much about the good american student makes... sorry.

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

hey all u guys.. im 14 nd really want to start the tenor sax - i already play oboe (nd other stuff) so ill have no problem with the blowin or wateva but do you have any advice on wat type of sax to get? I don't want to get a rubbishy one but on the other hand not too expensive either! thanx....

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Well first of all, where do you live? By the looks of it, the time you wrote this, and your vernacular (rubbishy instead of trashy), tell where you are from, the Great Britain. The only reason I would ask you that is because of shipping from overseas or stuff like that, depending on how fast you want to get it.
If you ARE from the UK, the best place to look on the internet would be www.saxophones.co.uk. From there, enter the main site. When you're there click the thing on the top that takes you to their catalog. Click "Saxes for Sale", then find "Your first tenor sax." If I were you, I would pick the second one on there, it's a Selmer (arguably the best sax manufacturer) student model with lots of other stuff (read their details there).
If you're in the US go to www.wwbw.com or www.music123.com, they're pretty much the exact same site, just wwbw is more wind instruments, and music123 is rock instruments and the like.
Hope this blathering helps!
saxjunkie89

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

Hey I'm 14. I play tenor sax I hoping to learn alto next year. My mom and siblings hate when I practice and they say I play to loud. Well when you get into what your playing noise isn't an issue until your grounded...
my 2 cents

Re: Any 14 yr olds wanna talk?

bad luck on gettong grouned...
I play tenor and for a while my mum was working night shifts, so i had to be real quiet when i was practising. When the weather was nice i went out on the back porch, and when it rained, i put an old t-shirt down the bell to try make it quieter.
U could try that... :s
It kinda worked..